May we look up today and praise God for all of His wondrous grace and love toward us! Let’s take some time today to praise our Lord; it will lift the heart no matter your circumstances. Our God is so good, and the scriptures are replete with reminders to praise HIM always! Remember “greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world…”. (See 1 Jn. 4:4). So, let’s simply share a few passages to encourage our hearts today! REJOICE IN THE LORD! Always!

“The LORD is my strength

and my shield;

my heart trusted in him,

and I am helped:

therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth;

and with my song will I praise him.” Psalm 28:7

“Let all those that seek thee

rejoice

and be glad

in thee:

let such as love thy salvation

say continually,

The LORD be magnified.

17 But I am poor and needy;

yet the Lord thinketh upon me:

thou art my help

and my deliverer;

make no tarrying,

O my God.” Psalm 40:16-17

“This is the day

which the LORD hath made;

we will rejoice

and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

I pray that your hope is in God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—may we confidently rejoice in our God who reigns!!!

The “in it” is referring to today!!! This day. This “day which the LORD hath made” is for me and you—and we can choose whether we will “rejoice” in it, and “be glad” in it! That’s right, it’s my choice and yours whether we will respond to ‘today’ with joy and delight in the Lord, or doubt what God is doing, pout about it, and drop out of the race that God has “set before us”!

A runner (and I’m certainly not physically one of those—I don’t even run to the mailbox on a good day!! Ha ha) doesn’t get to pick his lane, his track or the competition; he simply shows up at the meet and prepares himself to run ‘his’ best race! And that, my friends is what God asks us to do—today!

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about

with so great a cloud of witnesses,

let us lay aside every weight,

and the sin which doth so easily beset us,

and let us run

with patience

the race

that is set before us,

2 Looking unto Jesus

the author and finisher

of our faith;

who for the joy that was set before him

endured the cross,

despising the shame,

and is set down at the right hand

of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

We are called to “run” our own race—today, by keeping our eyes “fixed” on Jesus—not the track, or the competition, or the length, or the roughness of the track! We are to keep looking to Jesus and the prize of HIS person! He is the prize, and spending eternity with Him, and reveling in HIS glory.

God hasn’t called us to cry over the race we lost yesterday, or the race we might win tomorrow. God calls us to run ‘today’; to run our own race; to run that race with our eyes on Jesus not self; to run that race with confidence in the Lord who saves us, who keeps us, and who supplies our every need today. We serve a God who is faithful today—he may be slow (in our time schedule) but HE is never late. We are to run with the knowledge that Jesus ran HIS race for our salvation, “despising the shame” of the cross, but willing to stay there for you and me!

Peter calls us to remember the One who not only came to save us, by “being the way”, but He also left us an example of total faithfulness and trust in God for our yesterday, our today, and our tomorrow! What are you ‘fixed’ on today?

“For even hereunto were ye called:

because Christ also suffered for us,

leaving us an example,

that ye should follow his steps:

22 Who did

no sin,

neither was guile found

in his mouth:

23 Who, when he was reviled,

reviled not again;

when he suffered,

he threatened not;

but committed himself

to him that judgeth righteously:

24 Who his own self

bare our sins

in his own body

on the tree,

that we,

being dead to sins,

should live unto righteousness:

by whose stripes

ye were healed

25 For ye were as sheep

going astray;

but are now returned

unto the Shepherd

and Bishop

of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:21:24

This precious Lamb of God who loves us and came to be “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (See John 1:29), takes away the sin of all who will come to Him in repentance and faith “TODAY”! For those of us who have already trusted in Him, our todays are to be given to His service—each of them, to do with as HE pleases for our spiritual growth and His eternal glory. If you don’t know Him, you can come to Him today—for yesterday is gone, and you have no assurance of a tomorrow! Today is the day—it’s all you have.

“(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”. 2 Corinthians 6:2

Today! The author of Hebrews reminds us that it is all about ‘today’ (note that in the KJV it is to-day). What are you doing with your ‘today’?

“Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith,

To day if ye will hear his voice,

8 Harden not your hearts,

as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness…

…12 Take heed, brethren,

lest there be in any of you an evil heart

of unbelief,

in departing from the living God.

13 But exhort one another daily,

while it is called To day;

lest any of you be hardened

through the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we are made partakers of Christ,

if we hold the beginning of our confidence

stedfast unto the end;

15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice,

harden not your hearts,

as in the provocation.” Hebrews 3:7-8 & 12-15

Here we see that God calls us to be sure that we have heard HIS voice! As I often say, “Saying so, doesn’t’ make it so!” We must be sure that we have had a “today” when we repented of our own personal sin, believing that Jesus death, burial and resurrection paid for our sin! It’s why He came, and we can trust our ‘today’ to His faithful and loving sacrifice for ‘my’ sin!

What are you doing with today? Rejecting Him? Putting Him off till tomorrow? Serving Him faithfully and spending your ‘today’ rejoicing in His presence in your life ‘today’? I simply call each of us to examine our ‘today’! For, as the title says, “Today Is Only Today, Today”! In Jesus our todays and tomorrows are totally secure, and our yesterdays can be forgiven and removed “as far as the east is from the west”! (See Psalm 103:12)

We attended the funeral of a dear friend earlier this week; a man whom I watched grow in the Lord and become a mighty man of The Word. I don’t say this to brag on anyone but Jesus: to remind you and me that we have today and we can choose to do God’s work this day (and each today that God grants to us) or not. My friend and his wife chose to seek God’s face through His Word, to be what God called them to ‘be’—which led to their ability to ‘do’ what God led them to do.

My friend learned to seek and depend on God for each day. Having physical issues that made him very cognizant of his mortality and dependence on God, he gave testimony that he was truly rejoicing in the “day which the LORD hath made”, and being grateful for each one that God granted him, to use each one wisely and well. We were blessed to visit with him the day he died and he was still smiling and we had a great prayer time together! My friend chose to serve God through it all, and I thank God for the treasure of his friendship through the years! Yet so often I have encountered people who are “on hold” toward God.

What do I mean? I mean that many people put God “on hold” as they are looking for a “better day” to serve God. “I’ll serve The Lord when I get this new job.” “I’ll join your Bible study class when the kids get in school.” “I’ll praise God when things turn around!” “I can’t serve God ‘now’, I have 7 ballgames to attend.” “I’ll get involved in the church when we get our new house finished.” And this list could go on and on. But the Psalmist brings reality into focus, calling us to recognize that today is all we have to use—yesterday has passed– tomorrow may not come. We are to live each day with, for and by the power of God in all we do!

“Boast not thyself of to morrow;

for thou knowest not

what a day may bring forth.” Proverbs 27:1

What’s your plan for today? Does it include time for God? Does your day start with God, or do you find yourself at the end of the day, saying to yourself and/or God, “I’m sorry, I just ran out of time to seek you Lord!” We each have the same “time bank balance” every day; we are each given the same 24 hours daily—it’s up to us what we do with them.

Jesus addressed this same issue and calls us to live for Him today, each day, in all that we do, and not plan Him right out of our lives. Jesus never called us to be haphazard nor careless in the care of our loved ones, but He does call us to seek HIM first! I’ll simply leave you with the words of our Lord and Master and let them sink into your heart and mind—use today while you have it. God will lead and guide if we will but listen, hear and obey!